Full Italian experience

Peta Graves and co-owner and chef Robert Catanzariti

Source: The Advertiser

The melting pot is hot out in the northeastern suburbs. Hot as Hades. The temperature has struck out around 40C, yet at the street bus stop outside Assaggio Cafe and in its car park and entrance there seems little evidence the locals are staying inside.

The ethnic makeup is subcontinental, plus horn of Africa, and a continuing trail of Italians and all manner of Australian families and groups.

Many of them are filing into this new cafe with its swish and sexy designs - dark browns and slate tones, rows of hot orange ball lights around the edges, swirling etched servery sections, big lettering and catchy texts over feature walls.

Contemporary - and big. Very big. Yet, by mid-evening, it is full.

A lively centre of suburban exuberance, you might say, and all power to the group associated with Hyde Park's high-end Italian ristorante of the same Assaggio name who have seized this former row of shops, spent much of last year fitting it out and since October have become a huge success.

Perhaps this has something to do with the dining options out here, and also the clever souls involved and their understanding of exactly what works at Campbelltown.

First, add the word cafe to this new venture, making it a more accessible destination for families and lifestyle-conscious residents who up to now might have been concerned about sitting down in anything but a fast and cheap pizza and pasta joint.

The good thing is the Assaggio Cafe gang has created a very smart bridge between its starred (Adelaide 2010 Food Guide ) restaurant and the popular Italian, lower end of the carbo-station genre.

It's a cafe with table service. Sure, your spot has a number, but the rest is reasonably smart and attentive floor staffing who seem quite capable of managing a full house of close to 150 hungry souls.

It's a long, long way up the ladder from the $9.90 mob when it comes to what the kitchen can turn its hand to, with a menu that reads like a full Italian experience from classic antipasti dishes, such as arancini (rice balls), right through to properly crafted panna cotta, crostata and affogato.

It's a big list to choose from, with full pages of pizza, pasta (dried noodles), gnocchi (fresh) as well as mains, desserts, and a choice of banquet menus for four adults.

The choice to keep a solid Italian feel to the menu has prompted the Assaggio Cafe management to offer a long and well-set-out glossary of Italian ingredients and cooking styles. Good on them for their helpful attitude.

The drinking here is pretty easy as well, with value across the board, and the whites and reds available by the glass also can be poured in half-litre measures. Bigger spenders have a few big shiraz options, and there's a healthy choice of Italian varieties from the home country and grown here.

Big is the word all round. Soft drinks come in huge glasses and the serves are beyond hearty. A beetroot with goat's curd, pine nuts and rocket appetiser is thought, perhaps, too big for a starter, and delivers its expected earthy flavours.

Prawns wrapped in pancetta over a generous mound of white bean and tuna salad has a bit of hot and cold tension about it, and the agrodolce sauce underneath works its way into the dish with aromatics much like a barbecue sauce, it has to be said.

The wow factor in the first sector of the menu comes via a shared ``cicchetti-style'' five-entree platter served on a smart white crockery lazy susan affair. It's so lavish I dare to say it will become a signature here and probably do many couples as a complete meal.

But there's more, like ``big salads'' for lunch or sharing, huge pastas and substantial side dishes of fried rosemary potatoes tossed in Sicilian sea salt and mixed greens with a clever spiced dressing. These could easily be treated with less enthusiasm than other fancier dishes, but here the chefs Robert Catanzariti (also a co-owner) and Danny Anastasi do the right thing. Each is expertly fresh, crisp and appetising, a sign the kitchen is working at top gear.

Mains are geared for popular appeal, the sausages familiar to anyone who has had the pleasure of dining at home base working a robust blend of pork, fennel and dash of chilli, splayed open in a stack, with soft polenta and broccoli adding foundation and colour.

The straight cotoletta comes as four slabs of crumbed veal beside a bowl of slightly disconnected celery and tomato-dominated salad. It's a little plain as a dish and seems to cry out for a sauce or mayonnaise to add interest to the meat.

Both are monster-truck servings at very friendly family dining prices. The veal easily could have fed two children for $21. And on that subject, the family quotient is high here, with what appears to be a strong satisfaction vote as well.

No surprise really, given the Assaggio mantra to offer an authentic Italian family dining experience.

While many gastronomes might argue the Romans never were really original dessert dwellers, a lively set of sweets and pastries has become one of the core successes of this cafe, including 18 homemade gelati, a great selection of small to larger tarts, chocolates and biscuits all displayed at the entrance where many guests simply come to have coffee and cake.
You can choose a little dessert platter of three smaller items, including the house vanilla panna cotta with berry top and a tiramisu that has to rate as one of the city's fanciest designs.

There is so much attention to this section of Assaggio's offering that it is reminiscent of some of Melbourne's more successful Carlton operations that attract drooling guests from kilometres away. Again not surprising. In fact, heartening. Here we have a genuinely exciting addition to the northeast's dining map that can only spread its wings, and its creams, to many more locations.
If you go, I dare you not to come away wishing there was one in a suburb near you.

THE RESTAURANT
Assaggio Cafe
84 Newton Rd, Campbelltown.
Phone 8336 5599

Lunch: 11.30am-2.30pm, seven days, smaller menu 2.30pm-5.30pm.
Dinner: 5.30pm-9pm, Sun-Thurs; to 9.30pm, Fri-Sat. Later for coffee and cakes.

Seating: 140 for full dining; 25-30 casual cafe/foyer

Wheelchair access and facilities.

Owners: Robert Catanzariti, Camillo Crugnale, plus partners.
Chefs: Robert Catanzariti and Danny Anastasi.

THE VERDICT
THE BILL
Entrees: $8-$17
Pizza and pasta: $13-$21
Mains: $19-$28
Desserts: $6-$12
Corkage: $10/ bottle

Summary
Lively, huge open space offering family friendly, popular Italian dining with many menu choices, attractive prices, generous servings and a special place for dessert explorers. Well paced, smartly conceived and a suburban hit already.

Score: 14.5/20

Score guide: Below 10: Awful. 11-12: Fair. 13-14: Good. 15-16: Special. 17-18: Outstanding. 19: Brilliant. 20: Perfect.